


In the Weeds (The Undercover Lover's Remix)

by afrocurl



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-17
Updated: 2013-05-17
Packaged: 2017-12-12 02:53:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/806333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afrocurl/pseuds/afrocurl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma hated few things when working in the restaurant business. One of them was co-workers who had to take the moral high ground and ruined all of her other plans.</p>
<p>Or, how Emma Frost chose to get back at Erik Lehnsherr years later.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Weeds (The Undercover Lover's Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [not_who_we_are](https://archiveofourown.org/users/not_who_we_are/gifts).
  * Inspired by [In the Weeds](https://archiveofourown.org/works/639907) by [not_who_we_are](https://archiveofourown.org/users/not_who_we_are/pseuds/not_who_we_are). 



In this business, there were always days that made Emma want to tear out her hair. Today was one of them.

She’d only been managing Times Square for three weeks when half the wait staff was let go by Cain for “insubordination”. Now the entire staff was in the weeds and Emma had to run around helping out as much as she could, however she could, before she could even have time to think about finding enough staff to _try_ and cover the floor.

Cain’s firing was going to mean transfers - lots and lots of transfers. Just her fuckin’ luck.

Really, that was Cain’s excuse for not liking the look of everyone who worked under him, though she wasn’t sure how that translated into so many people being let go in a day. Whatever Cain's reasons were, they fucked with her schedule and with her plans for the week. But that meant that Emma was in need of bartenders and servers who had _skill_ so that neither Cain nor Shaw would complain about her prowess as the new manager.

However, there were only a few people Emma could think of who would be able to handle Times Square. One of them, Erik, she wanted to avoid like the plague, even if he was a good ‘tender and never said anything when he was in the weeds.

He was probably still bitter about the fact that she had gotten promoted over him, if she was honest. That was one strike against him before he set foot on her new turf. But, given that Janos was, well, Janos, she knew that there needed to be someone around the bar who _could_ take the fall if their plan went to shit. Erik would make as good a fall guy as anyone else, if not better.

If he was still back in Queens, it wouldn’t take much convincing to get Shaw to organize the transfer. It was just a demonstration of how she could pay him back for what brought her here and kept him there. Well, that was what it would look like to everyone, though Emma knew why she wanted him here.

She hoped Erik would see it her way as she squared her shoulders and made her way from her smaller office to Shaw’s on the fourth floor.

-

It was easy to see that Erik and Janos’ first shift together had not gone well. Janos was far more withdrawn than usual when he appeared on her doorstep.

He mumbled something about having to watch himself and that it made the shift miserable.

There were few things that Emma could do to solve this particular problem; Erik had only just started and there was no way that Erik could avoid working with Janos without taking the issue up the ladder to Cain or Shaw.

She knew better than to say anything, though, and let her boyfriend bitch as needed.

“He’s just so fuckin’ proper,” Janos said as he shucked his shirt. “I don't know how he does it, pouring just a bit too much without seeming like he wanted to get everyone drunk. I’m going to be so screwed.”

Emma wanted to laugh, because she knew Erik had it in him to pour heavily when the mood was right, but that was not going to happen in his first few weeks.

“Give him time. He’s bound to screw up soon enough.”

“Really?” he asked.

“It’s in him to fuck things up when they’re going well. Just do what you do and don’t worry about him.”

Janos nodded slightly and sat on the edge of Emma’s bed. Emma could tell from the lines of his shoulders that he was too keyed up for much tonight, but she knew that offering nothing would stand out.

“What do you want to do tonight?” she asked. There was almost no need to wait for Janos’ answer, but she stayed patient.

If she could show restraint, she hoped he would soon enough.

-

For all of the bullshit she laid on when trying to beat Erik for this job, Emma knew he was a capable server. But that didn’t mean that she wanted every day to be easy for him.

Tossing little problems at him made for the easiest way to hold her new position over his head. Give him shit, drop him in a mire or two.

It was easy, even with Charles. Charles, who came down from Upstate and was, according to Cain, his step-brother.

No one was to know that, of course. Emma didn’t want to ask why, but given the way Cain flaunted his money, there was probably something there.

If she had the energy, she’d investigate, but right now, she had her pre-shift to get through.

There was the usual announcements, with one that came from Shaw - needing exact pours.

She'd known _why_ it had been an issue for weeks, but now was just the time to implement it. November was around the corner and soon it would be December.

If the other ‘tenders couldn’t handle accurate pours, then they didn’t deserve to be here anyway.

There were notes for the day, as always. Shaw was meticulous about giving her _something_ to tell the staff, especially when he decided to pay fuck-all attention to everything else.

But that wasn’t what she really wanted to focus on tonight. There was Charles’ arrival, and by extension, Erik’s mild embarrassment when Charles would be introduced.

That was enough to put a smile on her face as she sorted through Shaw’s memo for the salient details to add today.

Real pleasure would be only moments away when the meeting started.

-

As was becoming their routine, Emma listened as Janos relayed the funnier stories from his side of the shift. She liked that he gave her some insight into the workings of the employees that she couldn’t see, but it also provided something to think about during her shifts, guarded as she was from everyone else.

Tonight it seemed like Janos felt like retelling the whole story, complete with an imitation of Erik and so she let it go and listened.

_“There’s nothing to him, I swear,” Erik groused as he checked over the glasses before the rush hit._

_Janos just nodded and hummed. He knew better than to actually engage in Erik’s tirades - on Emma’s strictest orders._

_“He can’t even do his own side work,” Erik added later, when there was a small lull._

“Oh, he can’t be that bad, Janos.”

“According to Erik, he might be,” he added after he finished popping the cork on one bottle of wine they’d managed to sneak out.

“Well then, this might prove very interesting later.” She let Janos pour two glasses and settled in to listen to more of Janos’ day. There had to be something else from his shift to counterbalance the hell that she had gone through to place the appropriate orders for the food and drink for the next few weeks.

For all Janos knew, Charles was the worst server to arrive since, well, ever. Erik had nothing good to say about the guy - even though Erik’s tables had all tipped well, it was only because Charles chatted everyone else up, with the end result of being as slow as molasses in January.

-

On nights when everyone got dropped into the weeds, Emma hated being a manager. She had to sit back and let Victor and Logan be idiot dumbfucks until later, when she could properly respond to their decisions to destroy so many potatoes.

There was no use yelling in the middle of the kitchen in the middle of a shift, but she was still pissed as fuck that the night was so gone. She’d yell later. Much later.

But, as she looked at the monitors around the restaurant, despite the 86 on fuckin’ bakers, the night wasn’t half bad.

Sure there were a few customers who pitched fits about having to eat rice with their steak, but everyone seemed to take the poor mood in stride.

As the night wore on, though, Emma worried about what she’d have to say about the staff to Cain and Shaw. There was no way they could survive until New Year’s if they let either Logan or Victor go, but something had to be done about their attitude.

There was absolutely no way that the restaurant could survive another night like this.

Not even if every waiter charmed every customer.

-

Emma's plan, now in its fourth week, was still utter crap. Even when Janos wasn’t working with Erik, her boyfriend had to watch how he worked - because no one could know that he was pouring heavy, _or_ that he was pouring heavy at her request. She had to keep this job, just as much as he did.

She was starting to wonder if people knew Janos had to follow her orders, but no one said anything because they all knew better than to cross the woman who set the schedule and who could find a way to get anyone else fired.

“So, no one’s said anything,” he said as Emma slid between the sheets of their bed after another hard night.

“Said anything about what?”

“My pours.”

“Oh, no. It’s the holidays so everyone’s happy to be drunk through most of the meal anyway. You’re doing them all a favor. The staff, too.”

“But, that can’t last much longer. January’ll be here before we know it.”

“And when that time comes, we’ll pin it on Erik. Shaw and Cain both find his attitude horrible and it won’t take too much effort to say he’s stealing bottles.”

“You sure?”

Emma nodded before she pushed Janos back into the mattress and kissed him. She wanted to end the conversation, and he knew it with how pliant he was under her.

He gave in to her kiss, as he always did, and let the workday wash away, to Emma’s benefit as well as his.

-

Angel had been saying _los novios_ in close proximity to Charles or Erik for a few days now. Emma thought it was odd, but given the general tenor of the staff this close to the holidays, anything went and it was in her best interests to ignore it.

But later she overheard Hank and Alex talking about Charles and Erik being work spouses, and then everything else clicked into place.

Erik, despite his gruff exterior, was far nicer to Charles than anyone else. There was iced coffee and more than casual touches during their shifts, if she believed the idle conversations from everyone during shifts and from Janos.

There was the story Warren was fond of repeating, the one in which Erik saved Charles from Charles’ first shift on the third floor.

All of that was just enough for Emma to realize that Charles and Erik, together, were far more dangerous than Erik was by himself.

For with an ally, and an ally who was so friendly and happy, Erik was capable of doing everything that he could to ruin what she and Janos had.

Eyeing the bottles in her office, there was only one real solution to her Charles-and-Erik shaped problem: remove one of them. Given that Charles was connected to Cain, that left her with only one option.

-

To say that he was a nervous wreck when he knocked on her door was an understatement Emma hadn’t known was possible. His hands shook and his voice had risen an octave, and he looked like he could easily sweat through his shirt before he walked to her bedroom.

She thought to ask what bug was up his ass, but she was certain she knew without asking.

Wanda had raised holy hell trying to get that bottle from Cain and Shaw tonight - or so she had heard when Cain and Shaw had called her to find out more about _why_ she would try such a stupid idea.

But the damage was done and now there was a very serious fallout to arrange.

There was only so much time left before Janos would lose his cool and blab about the whole operation, but she couldn't pull him from the schedule, either, not and have everyone else start asking why he was avoiding having to pour so carefully.

Instead, she pushed work aside and said, “Not tonight. We’re forgetting everything that isn’t in this apartment.”

She watched him nod slowly, though he still telegraphed his tension with every movement.

If she felt like it tomorrow, she’d find out more of why he was so nervous, but there was little doubt in her mind that it came from Erik’s tirades and his frustration at the whole prospect of working so precisely.

-

Even with the blizzard outside, Emma had only managed to get herself home an hour later than normal. She should blame the delay on something that happened at work, but couldn’t. There were just a number of slow customers that hung around trying to see if the snow would slow, but even after they cut everyone on the third floor and at least three people on the second floor, she still had to wait and see how everything went.

The servers who were still there had bitter expressions on their face, but those faces paled in comparison to the looks on the kitchen staff. They were ready to throw their knives and tongs at customers who had kept them open as the snow fell.

At least she had been able to cut Janos before the kitchen staff turned murderous, but that didn’t save her from much else.

She still had to find a way to get from Times Square to her apartment without ruining her outfit and her heels. But the slog home gave her the time to think about Charles and Erik.

She knew that their relationship was something to be worried about and with the cabs flying past her, she started to walk and think at the same time.

Jean, in a particular mood, as she left said that Erik had been following Charles around all night. That meant that even though Charles was working on a different floor, Erik still wouldn’t leave Charles to suffer. Their relationship - whatever it was - was something that they made work now.

Too much shared between them, Emma thought, as she finally hailed a cab. When she got home, she’d have to check with Janos if they were as close as that and if that meant she and Janos needed to move up their plan to remove Erik from the restaurant.

Probably, she mused, just as she settled into the uncomfortable leather of the cab.

-

“So what happened?” Janos asked as soon as Emma walked into the apartment. She was tired, and she felt the tension clinging to her when all she wanted to do was forget about it.

“What happened with what?” she tried to deflect, even though she knew that everyone knew about Erik’s blow-up and quitting/firing.

“With Erik, Emma. Don’t play me.” His tone had something in it, like he was very worried about his job now.

“Well, you’ll be safe. For a while. Erik’s fired. Gone. Whatever. He’s not at the restaurant anymore.”

“He didn’t take our plan to heart?”

“You think? He heard Shaw start to say he was fired and then just yelled and quit.”

“Really?”

Precious how Janos wouldn’t believe her. “Yes. Really. Then he walked out and yelled at me.”

Janos rose off the bed and looked like he would kill Erik next time. “He’s fuckin’ dead.”

“He’s not worth it, Janos. He never was. He’s just a fuck-up who will always be a fuck-up when he wears his heart on his sleeve. Happened in Queens and it happened now. No big deal.”

“What did he call you?” he tried instead, trying to wiggle out some tension. She wanted to do the same, but Janos kept pushing and so she waited.

“He didn’t call me anything. He said, ‘go fuck yourself,’ and walked out.”

Janos smiled slowly, as if he appreciated Erik’s choice of words. She didn’t want to push it because she just wanted to forget everything about today. “Drop it now? I’m tired from his tirade and the chatter everyone else had. I just,” she trailed off. “Need to not think like a manager tonight.”

“Then come here and we’ll forget everything about the day.” He patted the other side of their bed and without anything else to do, she walked towards him.

She rolled her shoulders as she went, and hoping that Janos was smart enough to know she needed a good massage and a really good fuck.

-

Despite Janos being very good at making her forget last night, Emma woke up with her mind spinning with possibilities.

Just because she had bested Erik again and kept Janos employed didn’t mean she was going to let him get away with yelling at her.

There was still one way to exact revenge against him for even trying to suggest that Janos was less than honest: Charles.

She hoped that Cain wouldn’t mind watching Charles suffer a little bit under the pressure without Erik there. Shaw wouldn’t know the difference.

-

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to my beta for all of her help on this.


End file.
